Behind The Mask
by RedWords
Summary: Beck Blake was at his breaking point until Spider-man saved him from a lizard monster. Two months later, Beck just wants to tell his hero thanks, but between the bully at school and his crush, Peter, things just aren't that simple. M for language for now, Peter/OC, post Amazing Spider-man, and yes, this is yaoi.
1. Prologue

**I saw The Amazing Spiderman and couldn't help myself. Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing but Beck Blake, my OC…and a couple other OC who aren't mentioned yet.**

**Beck's POV**

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Behind The Mask

Prologue

This was it. I was going to do it. I was going to jump off the bridge.

Or was I?

No, I wasn't going to jump, not anymore at least.

Life is funny sometimes, the way it makes you realize things that you would have never even imagined in a million years. It took a giant lizard monster to make me realize just how much I didn't want to die.

It was coming straight toward me, its bulk stalking down the road in an almost methodic way. It was looking for something. It found me.

For some reason, I piqued its interest. The creature's pace quickened as it approached me. I was stuck between a rock and a hard place, or more literally, a giant lizard monster and a plummet to my death.

A smart person would have jumped. There was water down there. I had a chance of survival with the water…the lizard, not so much. But I am not, nor have I ever been, one to think. I acted. And, in this particular instance, I didn't act.

I stood stock still like a deer in the headlights and watched the creature approach. The only thought that went through my head was, _Lizard don't like cold temperatures_. As if that tidbit could possibly help me.

The thing swung its claws at me and I let out a very unmanly squeak as I squatted out of the way.

Mr. Lizard didn't like that. He snarled and moved to pounce on me, and I rolled out of the way. I wasn't athletic, nor was I a fan of fighting. What compelled me to move was a sweet mix of pure fear and adrenaline.

And then the thing wrapped a clawed hand around my ankle and I was airborne. He threw me to the side, the side that had no bridge.

I screamed like a little girl for the whole ten seconds it took before I realized I wasn't falling.

"You okay, little boy? Where are your parents?"

I glare at the guy holding me. "I may be short but I'm seventeen!"

"Geez, sorry," the guy mumbled.

It was then that I realized who was currently holding me.

"Holy shit, you're that superhero guy."

"I'm Spiderman."

I open my mouth to say something I believe to be witty but will probably end up making me seem like an idiot, but the angry roar of a demented lizard creature cuts me off.

Spiderman sits me on the ground. "If you'll excuse me I have to go stop a lizard now."

With that, he was gone. I didn't get a chance to say thank you.

**/././././././**

**There you go. I know its short, but it's just a prologue. Chapter One is already written and is a whole lot longer. If things go well, I should be able to finish this story as well as a sequel I have come up with. Review!**


	2. Chapter One

**Thank you faceless reviewer Guest! I'm glad you like my sarcastic tone! Anyway, here is the first real chapter! I'm trying to get all the chapters from here on out to be at least 1,500 words, so they aren't so short. Also, these are all Beck's POV unless specified to be someone else. Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I tried to own Spiderman but Stan Lee kicked my ass. OCs mine.**

**/././././././**

Chapter One

That was two months ago. Dr. Curt Connors was sent to jail for terrorizing the city as a giant lizard creature among other things. Spiderman continued to swing around the city and take care of minor crimes. Life was normal.

"Hey shrimpdo," Flash Thompson, the resident bully and the guy who wants my life to be hell, said as he slammed my head into my locker door. The pain was minimal…I was used to it.

He walks off and I just stand there staring at my locker. "What the hell is a shrimpdo?"

"I believe it is the combination of the words shrimp and weirdo, but I could be wrong."

I can't help flat-out staring at the girl who spoke. "You're Gwen Stacey, right?"

"Yes. You're Beck, right?"

"Yeah, Beck Blake."

An awkward silence followed henceforth.

"Why are you talking to me?" The question wasn't meant to sound rude or mean or anything like that, but it probably did anyway.

"What do you mean?" she asks.

"No one talks to me."

The school bell rang and Gwen took the opportunity to leave.

Gwen was one of those people who wasn't afraid to talk. She would talk to anyone whether she knew them or not. It made her seem like a nice person.

She's too nice. I don't like people who are too nice.

I was in no hurry to get to class. I was late often enough that the teachers didn't really care anymore. I returned to staring at my locker until I felt compelled to open it and retrieve my algebra two textbook.

"Late again, Mr. Blake," Mr. Madison said as I sat in my desk. I didn't bother formulating a legitimate response when nodding worked just as well.

Mr. Madison turned back to the whiteboard and began writing a math problem. I took out my pencil and a piece of paper but made no move to do the math work. He would assign it for homework and I would do it tonight when I had access to a computer with Google.

I put pencil to paper and began sketching the first thing that popped into my head. That thing happened to be Spiderman.

Lately, Spiderman has been the only thing on my mind. I never got to tell him thank you for saving my ass. My sister, Bridgette, put a new idea in my head the other day though. All I have to do is listen to the police scanner that she had 'purchased for me' until it mentions a crime, and then I go to the crime scene. Spiderman should be there. I can tell him thanks. Who knows, maybe I could even give him the sketch I am working on.

I was putting the finishing touches on the drawing when the paper was ripped from my desk. I had to bite my tongue before I said something blasphemous to Mr. Madison, the one who took my drawing. I wasn't a fan of detention, namely because Flash was usually there too.

Mr. Madison held the paper up so the whole class could see it. Most everyone laughed. Flash laughed the loudest. Oh god.

"Mr. Blake, you should be doing math, not drawing Spiderman."

"You got a crush on him, faggot?" Flash shouts.

I slam my head on my desk. I had nothing better to do.

The best part of the whole situation was that Mr. Madison didn't scold Flash.

"Mr. Blake," Mr. Madison begins, "your…preferences…are not to be expressed when you are to be doing math."

I slam my head on my desk again, a little harder this time. The pain does nothing to the embarrassment currently painting itself on my face.

As if things weren't bad enough, Mr. Madison continues talking. "Mr. Blake, I can forget about this incident if you would please work out the problem on the board."

He offers me an expo. I take it and move to stand in front of the board, being sure to face away from the class that was currently snickering at my back.

_David gets to work in 20 minutes when he drives his car. Riding his bike (by the same route) takes him 45 minutes. His average driving speed is 4.5 miles per hour greater than his average speed on his bike. How far does he travel to work?_

What the hell? When did we start doing these problems? Have I really been that out of in class this week?

"We're waiting, Mr. Blake," Mr. Madison says. I can hear the frown in his voice.

Okay, so I'm trying to find the distance to work. Distance… Rate, time, distance. How do you solve these? Is it rate over time equals distance? I haven't worked one of these problems since eighth grade. Oh god, how do you solve this?

Let's see, if _r_ is his bike speed then his driving speed is _r + 4.5_. But that would make his distance _d_. How do you solve an equation with two variables? Am I even using the right formula?

"Mr. Blake—" Mr. Madison began, and I panic.

"Two point seven!"

The room was silent. Mr. Madison finally spoke, "Well, yes, but it would have been nice if you wrote how you solved it."

Mr. Madison orders me to go to my seat as well as returns my drawing. I shove it in my pocket. I stare at my feet all the way to my desk, but I still managed to miss seeing Flash's foot in my path until I had already tripped over it and fell face first on the floor.

Everyone is laughing at me when I stand up. I try my best to ignore them as I sit back in my desk. I bury my head in my arms and wait for the bell to ring. And for the first time in weeks, I listen to Mr. Madison explain the math problem.

When the bell rings I make no move to leave. I wait until the sound of footsteps in the classroom quiet before I chance standing. I don't look when I stand which leads me to finding myself pressed against a person.

"Sorry," I mumble, looking up at who I ran into.

"It's okay," Peter Parker replies.

I can feel my face heat up a little. I feign interest in one of the floor tiles in an attempt to hide.

"You're really good at drawing. That was a great picture of Spiderman." He waits for me to acknowledge his statement with a nod before he continues. "You're not in the art club?"

"I don't really like the art club," I mumble. Truthfully, I hated the art club. They didn't like me much either.

"Why?"

His question confuses me. I look up at him at tilt my head to the side. "Why what?"

"Why don't you like the art club?" He smiles as he speaks.

"They tell you what to draw in art club. I draw what I want."

I don't give him a chance to reply. I turn and walk out of the classroom. I smile when I hear footsteps following behind me.

My smile fades when I feel myself falling for the second time in the past hour. I don't hit the floor though. The hand gripping the back of my shirt prevents that. I manage to get back on my feet with a little help from my savior…who happens to be Peter.

"Come on Parker, you should have let the fag fall," Flash grumbles.

I glare at Flash. "Stop calling me that."

"I am just calling you what you are."

I open my mouth, but no words come out. I close my mouth and try again. Still nothing. Damn.

"So you're admitting that you're a fag?" Flash smiles as he taunts me.

_In private British schools a fag is a schoolboy who has to do menial jobs and run errands for an older schoolboy._ I frown at that thought. My brain can be an ass sometimes with some of the comebacks it tries to make.

Now that I think about it, that is probably where the offensive term came from. Funny how words that weren't bad can be misconstrued into very offensive things. Like how gay meant happy a few decades ago. I miss when 'boink' was the sound a bouncy ball made and nothing else.

I can't help snorting at that last thought.

"You're a weird faggot."

I blink and find myself staring at Flash. What? Oh yeah, I was in the middle of being humiliated. "Fuck you."

"You would like that, wouldn't you?"

Damn, I walked right into that one. "Fuck off. Is that better?"

"Whatever," Flash mumbles before walking away.

I sigh and turn to look at Peter. He stood beside me the whole time, but didn't say anything. Or maybe he did, but I just wasn't paying attention.

"Are you okay? You were standing there smiling to yourself for awhile."

My face feels hot immediately. "You saw that?"

"Yeah," Peter replies, staring at me. He probably thinks I'm insane.

"Well, I just got distracted by my own thoughts. No biggie."

Peter nods but makes no move to leave.

"You don't have to keep humoring me you know. I don't want a pity friendship. I get that I'm the weird gay kid who no one wants to hang around. I'm not contagious, but people don't get that. So go ahead and leave. Better that you do it now than wait and do it later. It hurts less now." Each word that left my mouth was a stab at my own sense of humanity. My body felt like a shell that was slowly being filled once more with whatever that had compelled me to go to that bridge two months ago.

"I'm not pitying you," Peter mumbles. His words sound angry.

"Why am I having a hard time believing that?"

He searches my face for a long moment, probably looking for a sense of falseness to my words. When he finds no such thing, he turns around and leaves.

_You have to go and screw up every good thing that comes your way, don't you?_ I frown at that thought and try to tell myself that what I did was the right thing. It is better to have him leave now than leave later. Right?

**/././././././**

**Taadaa! I love torturing Beck. It is just so fun. And in case you were wondering, the guy in the cover art is what I picture Beck to look like. For any Kingdom Hearts fans, I just pictured Roxas when I came up with this story. Everybody loves Roxas.**

**Anyway, review and I shall update. I want to get at least five reviews, but that might be asking too much since this story is less than 24 hours olds. I'll post the next chappie as soon as I see a review. I already wrote it! Be proud of me.**


	3. Chapter Two

**OMG, thank you **_**Seeing Sasha**_** & **_**Jessicat113**_** for the reviews! I was about to log off FanFic, but decided to check for reviews…and I fangirl-squealed when I saw three new reviews. So, here is an update. Enjoy! :D**

**Disclaimer: I thought I could get ownership of Spiderman by joining the Avengers, but they said that fangirl isn't a real superpower. OCs mine.**

**/././././././**

Chapter Two

The rest of the school day had passed without too many hiccups. I only fell on my face five more times and got humiliated twice, once at lunch and once in study hall. Flash was the catalyst of my humiliation. He always is though.

I ignored the teachers that yelled at me for skateboarding in the hallways. The bell had already rung to release everyone home, so I didn't care. The only thought on my mind was getting away from the school.

Of course, that plan was derailed when I skateboarded into the principal. I had detention. Damn.

Three hours of listening to Flash Thompson make gay jokes while throwing wads of paper at my head was not fun. I am used to it though. Detention isn't new to me at all.

At six thirty the principal walked into the room, sighed at the sight of me and Flash having a glaring competition, and said, "You can go home."

Home. Home is such a strange word. I have never had a home. I jumped from foster family to foster family with my sister until I was twelve. At twelve I found myself in Ms. Daisy's Orphanage. I had been there ever since. Three years ago, Bridgette turned eighteen and moved out of the orphanage, leaving me by myself. We still talk though. He has a job at Oscorp Industries in the psychoanalysis department and an apartment that I stay at every once and awhile.

So I am alone.

I sigh when I realize that I have nowhere to go other than the orphanage. I just let my skateboard carry me down the street without having an actual destination in mind. I wouldn't mind having plans with someone after school, but there are no plans for me to speak of. A lack of friends can do that to a person. Friends.

Peter. He didn't talk to me again today after my whole pity speech. I wish I hadn't done that. He was trying to be nice. And I believed him when he said he didn't pity me. It is just too easy to lie sometimes.

My skateboard carries me into something very solid and very angry fellow. "Hey, watch where you're going, kid!"

I glare up at the man who spoke. He begins to glare back but something in his eyes change. I don't like the look he is giving me at all. I try to push off on my skateboard and get around him, but he catches my arm. My skateboard rolls down the street without me on it.

"Where do you think you're going?"

"Away from you."

He smiles at my retort. I don't like his smile. "You're a cutie. Almost look like a girl."

My body reacts before my mind can. I kick him in the balls and run in the direction my skateboard went.

"Get back here, punk!"

I locate my board and jump on it, speeding off as fast as I can, praying to god that the man doesn't make chase.

God must not like me today because the man is following me, and catching up very quickly. I turn the street corner and slam right into a very different man…with a gun pointed at my head.

"Fuck," I mumble. "Today is just not my day."

The guy with the gun pulls me into a headlock with the pistol's barrel pressed to my temple. The cops who had apparently been pursuing the guy stop and fall back behind their police cars.

"I have a hostage now, so you can't do shit!" the guy shouts.

I heave a sigh. "You robbed a bank, didn't you?"

"Shut the fuck up, kid." I get my answer from the sack with a dollar sign on it slung over his shoulder.

I glare at him. "What moron robs a bank and just goes running down the street. I mean seriously? You should have taken the alleys. Dumbass."

He thrusts the gun against my temple. He must have thought I had forgotten I had a gun pointed at my head. "Shut up, kid. Don't make me shoot you."

I glance at the gun pointed at my head and smile. "You don't want to shoot me."

Before dumbass can understand my statement, I drive my elbow between two of his ribs and his grip on me loosens. His grip on the gun loosens too. I take the gun from him and turn, kicking him directly below his left kneecap. He falls to the ground.

"If you're going to rob a bank, don't leave your safety on."

Finally something went well.

And then some asshole passerby had to ruin it by shouting, "You go girl!"

I let my eyes leave the criminal to search for the guy who shouted that. "I'm a guy!" barely leaves my lips before I realize I'm falling. The criminal knocked my feet out from under me.

The worst part is that I let go of the gun…and Mr. Bank Robber caught it.

I squeeze my eyes shut and listen to the gunfire. I wait for the pain. It never came.

"You're okay. Everything's okay."

I open my eyes and find myself staring at Spiderman. I blink at him for a minute before looking around. Apparently we are on the roof of a building. I'm sitting on the ledge, the street down below me. The police are handcuffing the guy who robbed the bank. The gun shot was them shooting him in the leg.

Wait…I'm on the ledge. The street is at least five stories below. Oh god.

I jump away from the ledge and attach myself to the nearest object…the object happened to have been Spiderman. I wrap my legs around his waist and my arms around his neck without thinking. The only comprehensible thought going through my mind is _falling, falling, falling, falling_. I can't look away from the street so far below. My eyes are attached to it. I guess I am one of the few who look fear in the face and lockdown mentally and physically.

A hand grips my chin and forces me to look away from the ground. I find myself staring at the mask I have drawn oh so many times. "Hey, you need to calm down. You're okay."

I try to shake my head, tell him that, no, I'm not okay, I'm terrified, but his hand prevents me from moving.

"Are you afraid of heights?"

I manage to find my voice and form a reply. "No. I'm afraid of falling."

Silence passed between the two of us. I remain wrapped around Spiderman in fear, and his hand doesn't move from my chin. I can't help realize how close our faces are. I can feel the blush rising up my cheeks.

"Hey, its shrimpdofag!"

My eye twitches at the sound of Flash's voice from the crowd below. I manage to get my face out of Spiderman's grip and turn to glare at him. "That isn't even a real word, dumbass!"

I turn away the crowd below and relax against the body I'm still clinging to. It takes me all of two minutes before I realize what I'm doing and release my hold, landing on my ass. "I'm sorry. I didn't realize what I was doing."

He seems unfazed that I was totally cuddling him, but then again, I can't see his expression under the mask. "It's okay."

That voice. It sounds familiar. "You probably think I'm a freak, don't you?"

He sits down in front of me and shakes his head. "Nah, you're not a freak."

"Really?"

He laughs. "Really."

I can feel the still present heat in my face and stare down at my lap.

"Are you okay?" I can feel him staring at me from behind the mask.

"I'm fine," I mumble, turning my stare from my lap to a cloud off to the side. "I'm perfectly fine."

"Your face is really red."

I look straight into the black eyes of the mask and glare. "Your face is really red."

"That's not my face. That's my mask."

"Shuddup," I mumble, turning my gaze away from him. I can't keep the enjoyment out of my voice.

"You're a bad liar. Don't lie."

I laugh. "That's funny; usually I'm really good at lying."

"What makes you think you're a good liar?"

I face him completely and smile. "I pretty much told this one guy I hated him and he believed me."

"Do you hate him?" Spiderman asks, sounding truly interested.

"God no. I like him a lot. I mean _a lot _a lot. I wish I hadn't have been such an ass. He's probably never going to talk to me ever again."

"Why don't you tell him that you don't hate him?"

"Why don't I put on a leotard and a tutu and show my love for him in interpretative dance?" I nearly shout back. My scenario seems just as likely as his.

He laughs. "You could do that too. That may be going a little overboard though."

"I'm not exactly a 'feelings person.' I'd rather fall off this building than admit how I feel. He'd probably just laugh in my face and leave anyway. Everyone leaves in the end."

"What makes you think everyone leaves in the end?" he asks. There is a hint of insult in his voice.

"Go asks any orphan that question and they'll tell you that everyone leaves eventually."

"You're an orphan?"

I stare at him for a moment before nodding. "Yeah. Hell, my parents left before I even met them. But…" He watches me, waiting for me to continue. "I guess its better that way. Less painful seeing as how I never knew them."

Silence passes between us. Spiderman breaks it first. "Why are you afraid of falling?"

"Because…because I just am. I hate the sense of hopelessness that comes with falling. There is nothing that you can do. You just fall."

"What if there's someone there to catch you?"

I blink and stare at him, searching the expressionless mask for something. I don't know what I hoped to find. I couldn't hear my thoughts over my own heartbeat.

Spiderman stands from his place on the ground and I just watch. "I have to go. Spidey senses are tingling and all."

He begins to walk away, and I remember what I had wanted to do. "Wait!" He stops and turns to face me. I reach into my pocket and produce the drawing. "Here, I made this for you. A way of saying thank you for saving me on the bridge a couple months ago…and for saving me today too I guess."

He takes the paper from my hand and nods. "Thanks."

I watch him leave. It isn't until he is completely out of sight that I realize I'm on the roof of a building and my only way down is a very questionable fire escape.

"Damn."

**/././././././**

**I had no idea how to start this chapter, so that is why it may seem kinda rough. I had too much fun writing Beck's conversation with Spiderman.**

**Also, the next chappie has been written…kind of. I wrote out about ten pages and realized how much I hated it. So I have to go back to the drawing board…it shouldn't take too much revising though. When I see more reviews, I will post (if I have finished the chapter that is…I'll be busy all day tomorrow so hopefully an update tomorrow night or Tuesday night at the latest…).**

**And I'm glad that you guys out there like Beck. I pretty much write whatever I would say or do, just with a lot more sarcasm and a hint of depression thrown in for good measure.**

**Remember to review my lovelies! :D**


	4. Chapter Three

**Thank you guys for the reviews, so here is the next chapter. And I now realize that I really should work out the major plot points before I start posting stuff… You might understand why in the next chapter. You see, I kinda made Peter and Beck seem like complete strangers so far when they used to be really good friends… I didn't actually make them used to be good friends till just now. Please just ignore that little blip because I don't know if I can go back and fix every little detail in the last couple chapters. Bear with me, and enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Spidey, just the plot and the OCs.**

**/././././././**

Chapter Three

I ditched school today. I feigned an illness when Ms. Daisy found me still in bed this morning. She believed me and even called the school to say I would be a no show. Of course, it took me until noon to sneak out of the orphanage. Ms. Daisy felt compelled to baby me even though I'm practically a grownup.

I only managed to escape because she had to go grocery shopping. I could have climbed out my window at anytime…but I never would have made it anywhere, just clung to the wall having a panic attack until someone saved me.

"You are now entering the psychoanalysis department," the electronic female voice announces as the slow as hell escalator finally lifts me to where I wanted to go.

I never liked visiting Bridgette at work. I still don't. Maybe it was the just the weird feel the place gave off. Maybe it was the fact that to get to the psychoanalysis department I had to pass through the biology department...I hate needles and it always seemed like biology was synonymous with needles. Nah, it was probably just the slow as fuck escalators. "Bridgette!" I call as I walk through the research center. Most of the scientists glare at me, but I ignore them. Eventually I find Bridgette typing away at some machine that could have come straight out of an old episode of Star Trek.

She glances at me but otherwise continues her work. "Beck, what do you want?"

"Why do I always have to want something? Can't I just be a loving brother visiting his older sister who he loves?"

"What did you break and how much is it gonna cost me?"

I smirk. "For your information, I didn't break anything. But I wouldn't mind it if you let me borrow twenty dollars."

"Check my purse," she mumbles.

I locate her purse and find her wallet rather empty. She has three dollars, a handful of those mint chocolates from Olive Garden, and some kind of card that can be redeemed for a free coffee from somewhere.

"Bridge, I think I have more money than you do."

She sighs. "You know I'm not good at keeping money on hand. You can have whatever's in there if you want. Just don't take my Olive Garden chocolates."

"Can I just have one?"

"No, they're mine. And don't even think about sneaking one. If I find that I don't have seven chocolates when you leave, I will kick your ass."

I put back the chocolate I had taken and return her wallet to her purse. "What are you working on?"

"Some shit that Osborne has all of us psychosis lackeys working on."

"Psychosis is a mental disorder."

"I know that. But psychosis is a lot easier to say than psychoanalysts. It sounds cooler too."

I shake my head at my sister. I sometimes wonder if we're really related. Once you get past the blonde hair, we look nothing alike.

"I have a question."

"Shoot."

"Where did you get that police scanner from?"

I can almost hear the smirk in her words as she says, "It fell off a truck."

"Damn it, Bridge! You stole it? What if that thing is priceless and the cops are currently tracking it down? What if they show up at the orphanage and I get arrested?"

"You're such a girl. And it's not like those things are hard to take anyway. Cops don't even lock the doors to their police cruisers…ever. All I had to do was grab it and go. It was too easy. So pull that stick out of your ass and relax little bro."

I frown at the back of her head. Bridgette has had a knack for stealing since…well, forever. She used to steal small things like candy bars, but since has escalated to stealing bigger things like video games and cheap jewelry. She never got caught when we were little, but that was probably because they always had accused the wrong guy. The wrong guy being me.

I have found myself being interrogated by store clerks more times than most real criminals. Usually they'd question me and search me and then I would be let go. I'm not a thief, yet my picture is hung on the "watch out for" board in most retail stores.

Bridgette has even stolen boyfriends. Sometimes I wonder if she made me gay. I have been bitch slapped for stealing angry girls' boyfriends almost as many times as I have been interrogated.

But the worst part of Bridgette's larceny isn't that she is good at stealing…it's that she likes stealing.

"You need to stop stealing. You could get in serious trouble you know."

"You need to grow some balls and be a man." She pauses and sighs. When she begins speaking again, her voice is almost a whisper. "I saw the news last night."

"That wasn't my fault. I didn't want to be taken hostage."

"But you were. Be more careful next time." After a second, in a low whisper she adds, "We both know about your 'wrong place, wrong time' issue."

I fidget from my spot by her purse. This conversation had gotten awkward fast. Bridgette and I just don't talk about personal things.

"How have things been lately?" Bridgette breaks the awkward with small talk.

I reply with a heavy sigh that boarded on being a groan.

For the first time since I walked into Bridgette's little office, she stops typing away at the computer and turns to face me. Her wicked smile tells me that I should be very scared. She extends her arm and points at my face in a way that makes me wait for her to scream "OBJECTION!" The words that come out of her mouth are nowhere near objection though. "BOY TROUBLE!"

I blink at her. "What?"

"I can smell it from a mile away! You have boy trouble!" I open my mouth to disagree, but she cuts me off. "Is it Peter? You've been crushing on him since middle school. I still remember how you wouldn't shut up about him. You guys were best friends." I can feel my face heat up, but Bridgette is far from finished. "Or is it Flash, huh? You seem like the type to fall for your tormentor. I believe they call it Stockholm syndrome." I can feel my eye begin to twitch. Bridgette notices and continues on. "Or is it Spiderman? He has saved your ass twice now. And after he pulled you away from that crazy bank robber, you two kind of disappeared. None of the cameras could see you. Where you two up there on the roof have crazy, dirty, hot—"

"Okay!" My face feels like molten lava and my eye is definitely twitching to the point of me looking like some kind of spaz.

Bridgette deflates immediately. "Sorry, my supervisor said that if he catches me reading yaoi at work one more time he's going to fire me. The worst part is that the Wi-Fi in my apartment building is down and won't be fixed for another two weeks."

I sigh. "Sorry about that. But no, I was not screwing around with Spiderman on the roof, and fuck no I am not crushing on Flash." Just saying that sentence made my eye resume twitching.

"So it is Peter?"

I sigh. "Yeah… Yesterday he actually tried to talk to me. He hasn't talked to me since middle school. No one has really talked to me since middle school."

Bridgette nods slowly, taking in my words. And then she frowns. "You fucked it up, didn't you?" When I don't answer, she continues, "I can't believe you! You pulled that whole pity speech didn't you? You dumbass!"

"Just be glad I'm considering apologizing. I don't want him to hate me. Hell, maybe things could go back to the way they were in middle school."

Silence passes between us for a moment before she stands up and puts her hands on her hips. "Go."

"What?"

"Go apologize."

"I'm not going to school just to apologize. I'll apologize later."

"No." She practically drags me to the escalator by my shirt collar. "Now go."

I decide to just go with it and step onto the down escalator. "See you later, I guess…"

I make it to the biology department and am halfway to the next escalator when I notice a very familiar face. And suddenly Bridgette's whole act makes sense. I just stand still and begin arguing with myself over whether to cut and run or to say hi. I must have looked rather conspicuous because I am shocked out of my thoughts by someone addressing me.

"Beck, what are you doing here," Peter asks.

"Uh," I motion to the up escalator, "I was visiting my sister. What are you doing here?"

He motions to the biology lab back behind him. "I was visiting Gwen. Why weren't you at school this morning?"

"Why aren't you at school right now? I believe it's only one o'clock."

"It's two, and I ditched my afternoon classes."

"I ditched all of my classes."

"Why?"

I tilt my head to the side and try to feign innocence. "Why what?"

He smiles. "Why did you ditch class?"

"Can't you tell? I'm clearly bedridden with a horrible twenty-four hour illness that has kept me from going to school."

He opens his mouth to say something, but quickly closes it when someone walks up to us.

"Hey Beck, what are you doing here?" Gwen asks.

"I have no idea. I closed my eyes and when I opened them I was here." I can't stop myself from sounding like an ass. I hate it when people ask me the same question again.

Gwen frowns at me. Peter, thankfully, answers her question for me. "He was visiting his sister who works here."

"Oh, okay," Gwen says, nodding. She pauses for a moment, clearly grasping for a conversation topic, before continuing, "I saw the news last night. I'm glad you're okay."

"Yeah, if it wasn't for Spiderman, I'd probably be…well, I don't know. I like to think I could have handled myself."

Gwen and Peter exchange a glance. I can't help feeling left out. That glance meant something. What, I don't know.

"What was that about?"

"What?" Peter and Gwen ask at the same time.

"Never mind," I mumble.

They share another glance, but this one must have meant something different because Gwen smiles at me and says, "Well, I have to get back to work. I'll talk to later."

With that, she disappears back into the lab.

"So…" I begin.

"So…" Peter repeats.

What the hell. "I'm sorry."

"What?" He seems truly surprised by my apology.

"I'm sorry about being an ass yesterday. I didn't mean it when I said I didn't believe that you were trying to be my friend. Forgive me?"

"Yeah, I forgive you."

I smile and cross my arms behind my head, shifting my balance to one foot. I probably look totally uncomfortable and awkward, but I feel perfectly relaxed. "So, are you doing anything later?"

A smile appears on Peters face but is quickly replaced with a frown. "I'm probably busy."

_Probably_ busy. What the fuck does that mean? I return to standing like a normal person and slump my shoulders. "Oh…"

"Maybe next time?"

_Now he was just humoring me. This really is just a pity friendship. It probably always was…_ I pout at that thought and shove it out of my head. "I'll see you at school then."

I don't give him a chance to reply; I run to the down escalator and begin taking the moving stairs two at a time. I need to get out of here.

**/././././././**

**There you go! Once again, I will post when I either feel like or when someone reviews and I notice. I have the next chapter laid out, but it needs some critiquing. And I prefer to wait to post until after I have the chapter after next done too…so by Thursday I should have the next one up.**

**But yeah, that was the chapter. I felt like wasting some time by giving Bridgette some screentime and I allowed her to start setting up some backstory. The rest shall be revealed in time. And is it just me, or were the escalators in the Oscorp building really slow moving in the movie? That was just something I picked up on.**

**And just in case I seem a little OOC with the characters, it is because my only background of Spiderman is a few of the comics, the TV series The Spectacular Spiderman, and the movie The Amazing Spiderman. I am also one of those people who just hate the old Spiderman movies because the made Peter Parker too old. He was supposed to be in high school.**

**Enough of my rambling. So, recap, review and the update shall come sooner that it would with no reviews.**


	5. Chapter Four

**Thanks for the reviews. **_**Surely Blue**_** I'd be lying if I said your review on chapter three didn't scare the crap out of me. The only time I ever see reviews that long, they're pointing out how horrible the story is. Thanks for putting so much thought into some positive feedback. Anywho, enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I may not own Spiderman, but I do own a Tepig named Parker. (That was a poorly executed Pokémon joke…but do you get it? Parker…like Peter Parker…and Tepig is a pig Pokémon. Hehehe…Spiderpig.)**

**/././././././**

Chapter Four

I drag my feet as I walk away from Oscorp Industries. I feel so embarrassed. It's like everyone is laughing at me. What's even worse is that something keeps making an annoying buzzing noise.

Wait…a buzzing noise?

I reach into my backpack and pull out the police scanner that Bridgette procured for me.

"_Robbery in progress at the Quickie Mart on the corner of fifth and seventeenth_…"

Quickie Mart is just down the street. I wonder if Spiderman will be there.

What do I have to lose?

I begin to run down the sidewalk but I only make it a few feet before I collide with some guy exiting the adjacent alley.

And then I'm pulled into an all too familiar headlock and have a knife pressed to my throat. "I have a hostage now, so you cops can't do shit!" the guy yells.

I groan. "Well fuck me."

Cops are now surrounding me and the Quickie robber, waiting for their chance to arrest the guy without me being killed. I can't help frowning at one cop in particular. He keeps looking at me funny. After a minute or two he blinks and whispers something to guy next to him. The other guy begins to look at me funny as well. Eventually the entire onsite police force is looking at me funny.

Either they are saying, _hey, isn't that the hostage from yesterday_, or they're saying, _hey, is that the asshole who stole that police scanner from us?_ I really hope it's the former.

I sigh. "So you robbed Quickie Mart, eh?" The guy grunts as a reply. I take it as a yes. "You should be ashamed. My sister steals from Quickie Mart all the time and she has never been caught."

The guy doesn't like that at all. I can feel the knife pressing harder into my skin. I'm probably bleeding. "I will fuckin' kill you if you don't shut it!"

"But I don't want to 'shut it.' I like talking. Most people think I'm snarky though. What do you think dumbass?"

That makes the guy snap. He pulls the knife from my neck and begins to move to stab me in the chest. I flinch and shut my eyes. Here comes the pain.

The pain doesn't come.

I am contemplating opening my eyes when I am suddenly jerked backwards and up. When I stop moving, I hear a very familiar voice above me. "You have to be purposely becoming a hostage. I mean seriously."

I smirk at Spiderman. "Thanks for saving me. I probably could have handled myself though, just so you know."

He laughs and sits down in front of me. "So how have you been? I haven't talked to you in like twenty-four hours."

"Well, I tried to apologize to that guy I was telling you about. He seemed to forgive me…but when I asked him to hang out he gave me some half-ass excuse."

Spiderman visibly flinches. "What do you mean?"

"He said he was _probably_ busy. If that isn't saying 'I don't want to be seen around you,' I don't know what is."

"You don't know that!" I stare at him funny. That was quite the random outburst. "I mean, what if he was really busy?"

"If he was really busy he should have said, 'I'm busy.' Sticking _probably_ in there just made it sound…bad," I mumble.

Spiderman just sighs. "Why do you like this guy anyway?"

"I've always liked him. We were best friends in middle school…practically inseparable…but…"

"But what?"

I can't stop myself from glaring at him. "I'm not telling you." I swallow the lump that was beginning to form in my throat. "I didn't even tell Peter."

After a moment of silence between us, I stand up. Spiderman stands up too. "What are you doing?"

"I'm leaving. Or at least I would be if I could. Would it be too much to ask if you helped me get off this building?"

He shakes his head. "Of course not."

I keep my eyes squeezed tight until Spiderman tells me we're on the ground. I just clung to him while he climbed down the building. "Thanks," I mumble…but Spiderman is already gone.

I sigh and begin to head towards the orphanage, but I don't make it very far before colliding with the last person I wanted to see at the moment.

"Peter, I thought you were _probably_ busy."

The hurt is clear on his face. "I had to grab something for Aunt May."

"Thanks for the update. I'm not in the mood for a pointless conversation right now." My words are harsh, but I don't care. I try to shove past him, but he catches my elbow.

"How about ice cream?"

Twenty minutes later, I am standing beside Peter and watching the man behind the counter scoop ice cream into waffle cones. He hands us the frozen treats and says, "That'll be seven dollars on the dot."

I take five dollars out of my pocket to offer to the man, but Peter has already given him a ten. "Hey! I can pay for my own damn ice cream. I have always been able to pay for my own damn ice cream."

Before Peter can object, like I knew he would, I give the man my five dollars. He fiddles with the cash register for a moment before giving me my change. He then looks at Peter. "That'll be three fifty."

I don't wait for Peter to pay. I take my ice cream to the table in the far corner by the window overlooking the sidewalk. That was the table we used to sit at all the time.

The sound of the chair beside me sliding back alerts that Peter is there. "You could have let me pay for you."

"Have I ever let you pay for me before?"

"No," he mumbles. There is silence for a moment before he speaks again. "When did you start drawing?"

"Eighth grade, I guess."

He nods. Silence falls once again, and once again Peter is the one to break it. "Remember the last time we were here?"

"It was the last week of seventh grade, right? A Thursday, I think."

"Yeah, Thursday was our ice cream day. And then the next day you didn't talk to me. You even avoided me in the hallways. What the hell happened?"

I stare at the ice cream in my hand in silence. I didn't want to have this conversation. "Nothing happened."

"Then why did we stop being friends. You were my best friend one minutes and the next you acted like you hated me."

"I didn't hate you. I don't hate you." I can feel him watching me.

"Then why did you act that way?"

"I have my reasons."

"Then tell me your reasons." When I make no move to tell him, he groans. "Fine, then I'll just continue believing that you hate me."

I can feel something in the back of my mind snap. I clench my hands into fists, crushing my ice cream cone in the process. The vanilla ice cream forms a pool on the tabletop. I slam my hands on the table and stand from my chair so I can full out glare at Peter. "I liked you too much, okay?"

"What do you mean?"

I turn my attention to the puddle on the table. Looking him in the eyes is just too hard. "We were such good friends. Best friends. But, towards the end of seventh grade you started asking me all these questions about my house and my parents. You kept asking if you could come over after school. I didn't want you to know I was an orphan. I was afraid that if you found out you would stop talking to me."

"You know I wouldn't have done that."

"Yeah, I did. That's why we stayed friends as long as we did. But then, that last week of school… I realized something. And I got scared. It was just so much easier to leave you than for you to leave me. Okay?" My voice cracks. I keep my eyes focused on the puddle of ice cream. I was afraid to look at Peter. I was afraid of a lot of things.

"I still don't understand."

I grab my backpack from its place on the floor and turn to leave the ice cream shop. I make it to the door, my hand resting on the knob before I chance a glance at Peter. He is staring at me. His expression made my heartache. "I just liked you too much."

I run from the shop, turning into the first alley I pass. I keep running until I'm lost in the labyrinth that is the alleyways. Only then do I lean my face against the cold brick wall and sigh.

What was I supposed to say? _Hey, I had a big crush on you but was afraid that if you found out you would hate me. _I didn't lie to him at least. I stopped being friends with him because I liked him too much.

"That sucked. That sucked so badly. Why do I have to fuck up everything?"

"I don't know."

I nearly jump out of my skin at the response. A man is standing beside me. I don't recognize him, so he must just be a passerby. "What do you want?"

He smiles. "I saw you running and I just had to see what was wrong."

"I don't need you to check on me. Fuck off."

I can see his entire expression twitch. "I didn't want to have to do this." I feel his hand grab my hair, pulling face from the wall before pushing me forward.

I wait for the crack. I wait for the pain. I wait for the blood. It doesn't come.

The man stares at me wide-eyed before turning and running off. I watch his silhouette vanish into an adjacent alleyway. "You'd think he saw a ghost," I whisper to myself.

After a moment, I allow my hand to feel my forehead, searching for the injury that should have been there. There was none: not a knot, not a cut, not a bruise, nothing. I turn my attention to the wall instead. Right where my head had hit, there was a chip in the brick. It seemed that all those head slams from Flash had actually helped me out in the end.

"Beck!" I stare at Peter as he runs toward me. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. What the hell are you doing here?"

"I followed you. I wanted to make sure you were okay."

"'m fine," I grunt back. "You don't have to worry about me. I can handle myself."

I can feel a hand rest on top of my head, muddling my hair a little. "I know."

For the first time since seventh grade, the silence between Peter and I wasn't awkward in any way. It was comfortable. I had forgotten how easy it used to be around him. I had forgotten a lot of things. We really had spent the last few years acting like complete and total strangers.

"Next time, don't ditch me because you like me too much."

"Next time?" I mumble, glancing up at him. I can't help tilting my head to the side just a tad.

He smiles. "I had forgotten how funny you look when you do that."

I glare at him. "How funny I look? If I remember correctly you used to say that I looked cute, not funny."

"You look both."

I huff and shake my head. "Well thanks." I glance up at him and pout. "Does this mean we're friends again?"

"Yeah…I think it does. Just don't ditch me again, okay?"

"Don't ditch me either."

"I won't. But I have one question."

"Yeah?"

"What did you mean by saying that you 'liked me too much'?"

I can feel the blush rising up my face. "I meant that I liked you too much."

"That doesn't answer my question. I still don't get it."

"I don't know how else to say it. I liked you too much." In fact…I still do.

**/././././././**

**There you go. I have mixed feelings about this chapter. I can't put my finger on why though. Ehh…who knows.**

**I just want to tell you guys that you're kinda stressing me out. I actually feel pressure about making Beck seem OOC…and he isn't even a real character. But thanks for liking him… Hope no one is disappointed for one reason or another.**

**Just a fair warning, my update schedule is about to get a little less…frequent. At the end of next week, I'm going to the beach for a full seven days. I'll be back like the last Saturday of July… And then I have the hell of Summer Reading work for my Honors English class… **_**Lord of the Flies**_** and **_**Oedipus the King**_** are going to cause the month of August to be hell. I have about one hundred questions on both of the books, I have to learn a song, and I have to make a mask with some sort of symbolic meaning linked to **_**Lord of the Flies**_**… I haven't even read the first page of either book… And school starts for me August 20****th****…**

**Just beware. I will have four honors classes, Latin II, Drivers Ed, and Creative Writing…so my fanfic time will be severely cut. I'm sure I can bust out at least two more chapters before I leave for the beach.**

**Next chapter is going to be pretty short, but it is kinda an intermission. It is going to be in Peter's POV too. He has an epiphany.**

**So review and be prepared for one update a month in due time…hopefully I can still bust out one a week, but that could be pushing it a little.**


	6. Intermission: Peter's Epiphany

**Thank you guys for the reviews for Chapter Four! *gives cookies to **_**JessiCat112**_**, **_**Blue Heart**_**, and **_**Heaven's Archer**_*****

**So, this chapter is considerably shorter than the previous ones (over half the normal length actually), but that is because this is more of an intermission. In fact, it is an intermission, and has been named as such. I'll probably have a few more intermission throughout the story, most of them being Peter's POV, and maybe a Bridgette or Gwen one too. Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: If Spiderman was BL, I would own it…but sadly, it is not. *lone tear slides down face***

**/././././././**

Intermission: Peter's Epiphany

Peter's POV

It was the Thursday before the end of seventh grade. It was getting late and the ice cream shop owner was threatening to kick us out if we didn't leave soon. I didn't care though. Beck didn't seem to care either.

The short blonde sat beside me gazing out the window at the people walking by on the street. He had the far-off look in his eyes that told me he was thinking. He suddenly pouts and tilts his head to the side. He was trying to solve some kind of puzzle.

"You look cute when you do that."

Beck jumps and turns to face me, his face flushed. He never could take compliments well. He almost preferred negative feedback because it gave him a reason to, well, be an ass.

"This summer, we need to hang out."

"What?" Beck asked, tilting his head to the side.

I couldn't help smiling. "You said that your parents won't let me come over to your house, so you should come over to mine. Aunt May and Uncle Ben won't mind."

He frowned. "I don't know…"

"Come on, we've never actually hung out. And don't say that eating ice cream every Thursday counts as hanging out."

"Maybe."

That was the last real conversation we had.

The next day at school I walked to Beck's locker like I always did, but this time something strange happened.

"Hey, Beck," I called, waving my hand to catch his attention.

The short blonde looked up at me completely frightened before slamming his locker closed and running off down the hallway. Something was very wrong.

I located the person I was now looking for and got angry. "Flash, what did you do to Beck?"

Flash looks at me confused. "I didn't do anything to the little fag."

"The little what?"

"Beck's gay."

That couldn't be right. "No he's not."

Flash nods. "Yeah he is. I overheard him talking about it yesterday night when I ran into him on my way home. I asked him about it this morning and he admitted that he was gay. Your best friend is a little faggot."

I just stare at him. That couldn't be right. Beck would have told me if he was.

I couldn't catch Beck and talk to him for the rest of the day. I had lost all hope of speaking to him when the school bell rang and everyone began packing their bags. Summer vacation had officially started.

That was when I spotted Beck. He was trying to sneak out the school's side door with his backpack dragging behind him. I practically tackled him before he could get away.

"Beck, why are you avoiding me?" Beck didn't say anything; he just stared at his shoes. "At least tell me why you're not talking to me. Do you hate me?"

Beck flinched and shook his head back and forth. "I don't hate you."

"Then why are you avoiding me?"

Beck pushed away from me and began to leave. I watched him stop at the door with his hand resting on the handle. He glanced over at me and the face I saw broke my heart. He looked completely and totally defeated. "I like you too much."

I sit up and look around my room. It was only a dream. But it wasn't just a dream.

I had forgotten that the last day of seventh grade was when Beck was pushed out of the closet by Flash and his big mouth. I had forgotten that Beck and I had been making plans for the summer. I had forgotten his reason for leaving.

_I like you too much._

_ I liked you too much._

Beck was, is, and will always be, a conundrum. What did he even mean by that? How can you like someone too much?

I groan and stare at the ceiling. I had forgotten how embarrassed Beck gets when someone complements him. I smile at the thought of his face from just a few days ago. He asked me if I thought he was a freak, and when I said he wasn't he got all embarrassed. Of course, I was Spiderman when I told him that.

_He looks so cute when he's embarrassed._

Where did that thought come from? But it's not like it isn't true. Beck is a lot of things: funny, smart, cute, tough, sarcastic, creative, cute…

_Especially cute._

I push that thought out of my head. Cute was the only word that could describe him though. He looks like he's a little kid, being barely five feet tall and all. So cute is the only word that could describe him.

It still made me feel weird to think that. But I only felt weird because calling him cute was so easy. He was cute.

Maybe I have some kind of weird male Lolita complex or something?

_I liked you too much._

I still don't get it. So what if he likes me too much. Maybe I like him too much too?

At least Beck and I are on good terms again.

Maybe I should ask Gwen what she thinks about everything. She's good about understanding people.

Gwen would probably ask me questions like: _Why did Beck choose to ditch you when he did?_ _Why didn't he just ditch you that Thursday?_

I frown.

Beck had a crush on me? That's why he stopped being my friend! He didn't want me to get weirded out and stop being his friend. Would I have gotten weirded out and stopped being his friend?

_Wasn't I just calling him cute and saying that maybe I like him too much too?_

"Fuck."

**/././././././**

**Yay! Chapter!**

**I forgot to mention something in the last chapter about Beck. Beck breaking the brick wall wasn't a fluke… He has a very special story that he doesn't even know about. *evil laughter and lightning***

**But, yeah, Peter isn't as blunt as you think. Sure it took him awhile, but he got it! Now how will this realization shape his renewed friendship with Beck?**

**Remember to review because you guys love me! An even-more-miniature-than-he-already-is Beck to all reviewers! And a cookie! :3**


	7. Intermission: Peter's Stupidity

**I should have just stuck this onto the end of the previous intermission, but I kinda forgot. This is extremely short. So you don't have to review if you don't want to. But, yeah, this makes sense of Peter not realizing Beck liked him until just now. He is denser than he seems. Boys are idiots. Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I kept telling Peter that I owned him, but he didn't understand. So I don't own.**

**/././././././**

Intermission: Peter's Stupidity

"I'm such an idiot."

That was all I could say.

Why had it taken me so long to realize Beck had a crush on me? I mean, he had practically spelled it out when he said that he liked me "a lot _a lot._" I should have at least gotten the idea when he offered the suggestion of expressing his love in interpretative dance.

Was I really that dense?

Beck might as well have written, "I love Peter," on his forehead. And I just _now _understood what he had been saying.

I just assumed he meant that he liked me as a friend. I assumed that the whole interpretive dance love thing was just Beck's sarcasm meter turned up to an eleven. I knew that Beck wasn't a feelings person, so admitting that he didn't mind my presence seemed to be a big deal. But he was trying to say that he didn't only mind my presence, but he wanted it. He liked me. He liked me too much. He still likes me too much.

Oh god I'm such an idiot.

But what if I'm wrong? What if he really was just talking about being my friend?

My conflicting thoughts lead me to the only orphanage that I knew of in town. It took about an hour to find the window that looked into Beck's room.

Beck was currently asleep…but Beck didn't sleep right.

He had his face pressed flat into the mattress and his knees were brought up to his chest, causing his butt to stick up in the air.

There was no way he was comfortable like that. I felt uncomfortable just looking at him…

I slide the window open and step inside trying to be as silent as possible. It would have worked if I hadn't to have stepped on a mouse trap.

"Shit!"

Beck sits straight up and stares at me blinking. I freeze in hopes that his mind was still groggy from sleep and he would forget that I was there. He looked completely aware though.

After a moment of silence Beck snorts. "I have to be dreaming right now. There is no way that Spiderman is in my bedroom."

I smile at him, but he couldn't see it from under my mask. This could work for me. "Beck, I am a figment of your subconscious."

He frowns. "I already established that when I said that I had to be dreaming. My subconscious is kinda stupid."

I ignore that. "I have a very important question for you."

"Then ask it already," Beck says with a smile.

"When you say that you 'like Peter _a lot_ a lot," what do you mean?"

Beck seems confused by my question for a moment before he smirks to himself and lets out a long breath through his nose. "I see. My subconscious is trying to get me to come to terms with my feelings toward Peter." He looks at me for a moment and nods. "Well, subconscious, I like Peter as more than a friend…a lot more than a friend. But, I don't want to ruin the little bit of friendship that we have. I'll just act like I don't care. I'm good at that. I wouldn't want to scare him away."

Fuck. Beck does have a crush on me.

"N'kay bye," I nearly shout before jumping back out the window.

I had my answer now. Did I want it now that I had it? I don't know.

Maybe Gwen could help me sort out everything. I hope she won't be too annoyed when if I show up at her window in the next ten minutes. I mean, come on, it's only two a.m.

**/././././././**

**It was short, but it is an intermission. And it's Peter's POV. I don't like writing in Peter's POV because I am forced to tone down my natural snarkiness. The next one will be back to longer chapters and Beck narrating.**

**This whole idea came from a prank my mom pulled on me. I was half awake and she kept asking me what was wrong. I wound up telling her about some bitch at school who I hate. She didn't leave me alone for the rest of the day…**

**The next chapter actually is based off something that happened to me. Hint: It is dangerous to be distracted in class because the assholes in the room aren't afraid to draw penises on everything that isn't theirs.**

**I mean seriously.**

**Anyway, review if you want. You don't have to since the chapter is oh so short. But I had to feel in some gaps that I kind of ignored. And I should have added this to the previous chapter, but it's too late now. **


	8. Chapter Five

**This chapter is kind of just a filler chapter. It gives a taste of Beck and Peter being friends again. I can't help thinking that this chapter is kinda short though, even though my word count swears it is my usual length of 1,700-ish. Well, enjoy!**

**And thanks for the reviews you guys! Oh yeah, someone asked about Gwen being out of the picture. Well, just pretend that the movie ended with Gwen and Peter deciding to be just friends. That is what I'm doing! :D**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Spiderman, Legend of Korra, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Star Wars, Pokémon, or smoothies. (You'll see what I mean in the chapter.)**

**/././././././**

Chapter Five

Beck's POV

"Hey Beck, how are you?"

I glance over at Gwen and attempt to smile. It must come off as strained because she gives me a strange look. I drop the grin and sigh. "I'm fine. Peter and I are on good terms again."

"Yeah, he talked to me at like two a.m. and told me about it. I'm glad you two are back together."

Wait…what? "Back together?"

"Yeah. You two look cute together."

Am I missing something? "We're just friends. We aren't together. Just friends…really. Just friends. Stop saying that we're together, because we're not… Did he say we were?"

Gwen was about to say something, but suddenly my feet aren't on the ground any more. I grapple for anything around me to stop myself from falling and wind up clinging to my attacker.

Flash looks at me funny as I scramble off of him. "Are you okay, shrimpdofag?"

I glare at him. "Don't lift me up in the air! I don't like being lifted in the air."

Flash grunts something along the lines of, "Freaky little shrimpdofag," before walking off down the hallway.

"Are you afraid of heights?"

I turn my attention to Gwen, her being the one who posed the question, and frown. "No, I'm afraid of falling. There's a difference."

Gwen nods. "What else are you afraid of?"

I turn back to my locker in search of the textbooks I need. "I'm not a fan of needles."

"Trypanophobic, eh? Anything else?"

"I don't really like the dark. I mean, I'm not so bad where I need a nightlight or anything. I just get uncomfortable being in the dark longer than I have to be."

Gwen nods at me, appearing to truly care. I don't doubt her. She doesn't seem the type to lie. I'm sure Peter told her to be nice to me. "So you just don't like being in the dark?"

"If I can help it, I'd rather have the lights turned on. I can see everything with the lights turned on."

Two arms wrap around my shoulders and a chin rests on top of my head. "He's afraid of spiders too."

I try to glare at Peter, but wind up glaring at the ceiling instead. "I am not. That was only one time and it was a tarantula."

"You almost pissed yourself when that thing jumped out of your locker and landed on your chest," Peter mumbles, laughing to himself.

"Shuddup."

Gwen stares at us for a moment before posing a question. "What are you two talking about?"

"Back in seventh grade, Flash thought it would be funny if he stole the tarantula from the science lab and stuck it in my locker." I wasn't fond of that memory at all. Namely because I did almost piss myself.

"He doesn't like sharks either. Or dinosaurs. Or snakes. Or—"

I cut Peter off before he can continue on and reveal more of my rather unmanly fears. "Stop it. I'm only afraid of those things because my ass of a sister made me watch _Jaws_ and _Jurassic Park_ and _Anaconda_ when I was ten. Blame it all on Bridgette."

Peter snickers and pulls away from me finally. I was beginning to feel a tad bit uncomfortable. I hadn't expected Peter to pick right back up where we had left off in seventh grade with the whole disregard for the other's personal space. It wasn't that I disliked the closeness…I just wasn't used to it.

It would take me awhile to get back into the mindset of having a friend.

The bell rang to go to class, forcing everyone to at least start walking toward their respective classes. Today was going to be a good day.

Five hours later I found myself standing in the boys' bathroom scrubbing fiercely at my tainted forehead. "This sucks ass!"

I should have known better than to take a nap in study hall. Lucky for me, Gwen found me before I could go to my next class. She had greeted me with the phrase, "You need to go clean your forehead off."

Apparently, Flash had been so bored in study hall that he got a fucking sharpie and drew a penis on my forehead. I mean seriously? Who does that? Why would someone feel compelled to do that?

From the way the black image refused to come off, I could only guess that the marker was permanent. I wasn't in the mood to spend the rest of the day walking around with a drawing of a penis on my face.

It wouldn't wash off. It only faded so much. My only option left was to rub my forehead raw in hopes that the image was only on the top layer of my skin.

Of course, then Peter had to show up. "Hey, Gwen told me you were in here."

I turn to glare at him. He laughs. I glare harder.

"I'm sorry," Peter manages between laughs, "you just look so funny! Gwen told me that you were 'washing the penis off your face.' Now I get what she meant."

I throw a waded up paper towel at him. "Either make yourself useful and help me get this off my face or leave."

The paper towel hits him in the face and I can't shake the feeling that he let me hit him. I'm sure he could have caught that if he had wanted to.

Peter calms down his laughing and moves over to the sink beside me. He wets a paper towel before beginning to wipe at my forehead. "You don't have to help me, you know."

"Yeah I do, that's what friends are for." He makes a face. "This is permanent marker."

"I already established that."

We stand in silence for a long moment before Peter says, "Oh!" and pulls something that looks suspiciously like a compact out of his pocket.

He opens the object and begins applying the skin tone makeup to my forehead. It was a compact! Hmm…maybe Peter being gay wasn't that big of a stretch after all. "Why the hell do you have that?"

"Gwen gave it to me. She said that I may need it. I now understand why."

I can't help giving him a skeptical look. "Sure…Gwen gave it to you."

Peter ignores my comment. "I didn't see you at lunch. Where were you?"

I sigh. "I spent lunch in the library."

"Why?"

"Well, I was more tired than hungry, so I decided to just take a nap in the library. I had figured that the bell would wake me up when lunch ended, but I must have been seriously out. Thankfully I have study hall in the library, so I wasn't counted for skipping class. The only reason I'm not still in there asleep is because Flash flipped me out of my chair when study hall ended."

"He drew this on your forehead while you were asleep." I nod. "Why were you so tired?"

"I kept having these weird dreams last night, and I can't get any rest when I have weird dreams."

"What kind of dreams?" Peter asks. For some reason, he was smiling.

"Well, I had this one dream where I was on a moisture farm and I was taking care of baby elephants. For some reason these two guys showed up asking me to help them find Toph Beifong because they needed someone to bend some metal for them. I tried to help them, but they got on my nerves so I tried to go back to the moisture farm, but they kept following me, so I somehow got metalbending powers and metalbended the lampposts that happened to be around us into a cage so the guys couldn't follow me anymore. Anyway, I made it back to the moisture farm, but then my boss sent me to steal a zebra from this guy who was going to sell it on the black-market. When I got there to take the zebra, the guy who had the zebra took off his pants, did a headstand, and challenged me to a Pokémon battle. After I kicked his ass in the Pokémon battle he put the zebra in a pickup truck for me, but when I was taking it back to the moisture farm some crazy guy on a skateboard and his talking dog were chasing me. I thought that they were trying to take the zebra, but they kept shouting, 'give us the smoothie.' So anyway, I managed to lose them in a car chase and made it back to the moisture farm, but the zebra was gone."

About two sentences into my story, Peter started cracking up. By the end of it he was giggling like a mad man. I'm surprised he gained enough composure to say, "That is a weird dream."

"Yeah, that was the weirder one. I had another one where Spiderman broke into my bedroom. He asked me a question and then jumped out my window. All in all, I didn't get any good sleep last night."

Peter takes a step back and smiles. "I think you're all good now."

I look in the mirror and find that there is no longer a penis on my forehead. Thank god for that. "Now I have to go back to class, I guess."

"You guess?"

I frown at him, suddenly feeling uneasy. "How can you go back to us being friends so easily? You're acting like we never stopped talking to each other."

Peter scratches the back of his head and sighs. "It's not that hard to be friends with you. You haven't really changed at all."

"Well thanks. Is that a short joke?"

He smiles. "I mean you still act the same as you did. You're still you."

We stand in silence for a long moment. The silence was comfortable though. It was going to be easy being friends with Peter again. All I had to do was relax and go with the flow of things.

Easier said than done.

**/././././././**

**Taadaa! Hope you enjoyed it. I was supposed to post this yesterday, but I had one of those migraines where you nearly pass out from pain just from standing up. It was hell. I spent the majority of the day lying on the couch with a blanket watching movies with my dad. We had a kung fu marathon: we watched Karate Kid, Kung Fu Panda, and Kung Fu Panda 2. It was awesome!**

**And that dream that Beck had. I had that dream Thursday night. I actually wrote most of this chapter Friday morning, but I couldn't finish it until today… So yeah. In that dream, the two guys who were looking for Toph were actually Mako and Bolin from Legend of Korra, and the guy who challenged me to a Pokémon battle was actually Yu-Gi-Oh. Now that I think about it, Ben 10 was the guy on the skateboard…and I think Dukey from Johnny Test was the dog… My brain is amazing you guys!**

**So yeah, review if you want to! And for all who have or will review, I love you!**

**Oh yeah, anyone who picks out the Star Wars reference in Beck's dream gets a special mention in the next chapter as well as a virtual cookie! :D**


	9. Chapter Six

**Hey guys! I'm sorry I haven't updated in like…three week? I think. But it is really hard to get back into the swing of things after a week of the beach, not to mention the fact I have a bunch of summer reading work (I have finish 1/3 of it). This chapter was a real bitch to write. I must have written and rewritten it at least eight times. I don't really like it too much…not to mention I have had serious writer's block. I mean, I know what needs to happen and what I want to happen, but it just isn't putting itself on paper (well, Microsoft Word paper).**

**Also, congrats to JessiCat113 and BlueHeart for picking out the Star Wars reference in the last chapter! Anyway, enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: If I owned Spiderman, the movies would be rated NC-17. (Which is funny because I'm not seventeen! :D)**

**/././././././**

Chapter Six

"I told you to raise your hands!" the man shouts, thrusting his gun into my chest for the third time.

I groan and follow orders, lifting my arms above my head. How did I get into this mess?

"Osborne better hurry his ass up. I would hate to shoot such a cute kid." The man gives me a smile that makes me want to run away. Of course, running wouldn't work seeing as how he not only has a gun poking my chest but also the fact that we are on the roof of Oscorp Industries.

Oh yeah, now I remember how I got here. It all started this morning…

_Thump!_

_ Thump!_

_Wham!_

"_Ahh!"_

I glared up at the ceiling for the fifteenth time in the past eight minutes.

It was Saturday morning and I was trying to finish my history essay on the Opium War. Or, at least, that is what I would have been doing if it wasn't for the noise.

Ms. Daisy should really monitor the orphans more closely…

_Thump!_

"_Harder!"_

_Creak!_

I frowned down at my piece of notebook paper that was supposed to hold paragraphs to find a drawing. I could feel my face grow warm.

My brain had decided to put the two upmost thoughts in my head onto the page. One of the thoughts was the ruckus going on above me. The other was Peter.

The paper displayed a portrait worthy of a mature rating…and I had drawn it. Of course, I hadn't drawn it intentionally. My body acted while I just sat dumbfounded.

I swallowed the lump that had formed in my throat and folded the paper in half before sticking it into my backpack.

"_Ugh…I'm about to—"_

The sound that followed the statement alerted me that the scene in the room overhead had reached its climax. I would be able to work in peace.

Man was I wrong. When I realized that the activity hadn't ceased I decided it best to get away from the orphanage for a while. That was how I found myself in Bridgette's office at Oscorp Industries, doing her work for her.

Bridgette was currently eating a sandwich.

I sighed and turned back to the status report that Bridgette had asked me to spell-check for her. Bridgette may not seem very intelligent, but she is. Her report was almost completely void of mistakes. The few that she had were just forgetting an "s" here or using the wrong "to" here. English was her best subject when she was in high school.

"Let's recap, shall we?"

I couldn't help staring at Bridgette. "What the fuck are you talking about?"

"You and Peter are all lovey-dovey now, eh?"

"I wouldn't say that."

Bridgette smirked. "Well I would. Now, let's just get everything straight." I gave her a skeptical stare, but she ignored me. "Numéro Uno: does Peter know you're gay?"

"Yeah, he does. Why?"

"I am asking the questions here! Now, despite knowing that you are gay, he is still friends with you?" I nodded. "Okay then, is Peter currently dating anyone?"

"No."

"When was the last time he dated someone?"

"A few months ago he was going out with this girl named Gwen. Gwen is really nice. She's in our grade at school."

"Why did they break up?" Bridgette's tone shifted into that of a cop interrogating a known criminal.

"They were just better off being friends, I guess."

Bridgette nodded slowly, humming to herself. "Tell me about this 'Gwen.'"

I couldn't help giving her a funny look. "Gwen is really nice and is in my grade, like I said. She's really smart too. She's got a job here at Oscorp Industries in the biology department—"

"WAIT! You're talking about Gwen Stacy?!"

I flinched at the shouted question. "Yeah, that's her."

Bridgette stared down at her lap and nodded. "This changes everything. Note to self: bring Gwen to _The Dark Side_."

"What's _The Dark Side_?"

The smile that appeared on Bridgette's face made me come close to pissing myself out of pure fear. "_The Dark Side_ is where fangirls reside. We have cookies!"

I chose to ignore the end of her statement just to avoid whatever Bridgette's answer may have been. "You have a plan, don't you?"

Bridgette always had a plan. The worst part was that all of her plans ended up working out the way she wanted them to. It didn't take a rocket scientist to realize what was in store. "I'm sure Gwen would love to see Peter happy, and I bet nothing would make Peter happier than fucking you."

"First off, just say 'date me;' 'fucking me' sounds so vulgar. Second, what makes you think Peter would want to even be with me?"

"Okay, so either you and Peter 'date,'" Bridgette put air quotes around the word, "or he runs off screaming."

Having the situation laid out like that made me feel uncertain. The chance of the former was so slim compared to the latter. I'd rather just stick where I am with me and Peter being friends. Of course, Bridgette thought otherwise.

"Don't worry little bro, I'm going to make Peter beg you to fuck him."

"_Date him_."

"Date and fuck him."

I groaned and shook my head. There was no getting a point across with my hardheaded sister. I opened my mouth to say something, but was cut off by a very angry man in a business suit carrying a briefcase.

"Bridgette Blake, what in god's name do you think you are doing?!"

Bridgette froze and slid down in her chair in an attempt to disappear. It didn't work. "I was just taking my break, sir."

"No visitors, Ms. Blake!" The man turned to glare at me. "Out!"

After being unceremoniously kicked out of the psychoanalysis department, I had found myself in the biology department, watching Gwen bustle around with a clipboard. As soon as she had noticed me, she smiled and waved, but almost immediately her smile shifted to a look of horror.

That was when I felt an arm latch around me and a gun press into my temple. _Shit._

"Listen up everybody," the man had shouted, "I'm going to take this hostage to the roof where I'll be waiting for Osborne! Try any funny business, and the kid gets killed!"

…That was how I wound up on the roof.

My captor is currently mumbling to himself. I try to block out his words the only way I know how: by talking to myself.

"I should really get paid for being taken hostage. This is the third time this week."

The man stabs me with the gun once more. "Shuddup!"

I frown. "What if I don't want to shuddup, fat ass?"

'Fat ass' clearly doesn't like the nickname by the way he shoves me to the ground and cocks the gun.

"Beck!"

I glance past the man's shoulder to see Spiderman swinging towards us, but he was too late. The man was pulling the trigger.

Everything feels as if it is going in slow motion as the bullet exits the chamber and flies straight toward my heart. I just sit in stunned silence and watch my death approach. I couldn't have closed my eyes even if I had wanted to. The bullet presses into my chest and I feel a slight pressure, but no pain. The bullet slowly crushes itself into a small metallic pancake before falling to the ground.

_What the hell just happened?_

I grab the pancaked bullet from its place on the ground and shove it into my pocket, aware of the need to hide the evidence. Evidence of what, I don't know.

Spiderman covers my captor in web and gets the gun away from him. I watch as the man is webbed to the tower situated on the roof.

The next thing that happens confuses the hell out of me even more than the whole bullet thing. Spiderman pulls me into a suffocating hug and says, "I don't know what I would have done if something happened to you."

I frown. "Do you get that emotionally connected to everyone you save?"

A pause of silence follows my question. When I feel Spiderman's grip on me slacken I take a step back in an attempt to put some distance between us.

Except, there wasn't any roof for me to step back on...

My body locks down from fear as I plummet toward the concrete so far below. _I'm going to die._

"Beck!"

I manage to blink at the sound of my name being called. Suddenly I feel something attach to my stomach and jerk me to a stop before pulling me back up to the roof.

Spiderman pulls me against his chest and I don't try to resist…I couldn't. My body was still locked down from fear. My senses are even starting to dull. I can't make out what Spiderman is saying. It is as if I'm underwater.

My vision begins to fill with shiny dots that flit away every time I try to focus on one. The white dots begin to form a cloud, obscuring everything.

_Am I going to die? I can't die, I'm still a virgin!_

I feel a warm pressure resting on the left side of my face. The pressure shifts a little and a piece of it shifts so that it is touching the corner of my eye. Everything is still for a moment before the pressure begins to stroke down my cheek.

I convulse suddenly, taking in a deep breath and blinking the lights from my eyes, focusing on Spiderman.

Spiderman sits in front of me, his hand still holding the side of my face. He is still stroking his thumb down the side of my face.

_That feeling…it is so familiar. But why?_

Tears begin to slip from my eyes and I find myself burying my face in Spiderman's shoulder. He doesn't complain, he just continues stroking my cheek with his thumb.

"It's okay. You're okay. I'm not going to let anything happen to you. I promise."

A sad smile worms its way onto my lips.

"Don't make promises that you can't keep."

**/././././././**

**Did you like it? It's not so bad, in my opinion, but it's not my best work either. Eh.**

**Anywho, I will try to update again soon, but no promises of it being this week or even next week. I got all that Summer Reading crap to do. I am also very distracted by doing a couple Nuzlockes (One's Pokémon Black and the other's Pokémon LeafGreen), the new Kingdom Hearts game Dream Drop Distance (which I played for five hours and turned to game off just to realize that I hadn't actually saved the game…I am back to where I was now though.), and I have also gotten into Wizard101 again (on there I'm Cori Ravenbane, Magus Sorcerer).**

**I'm exhausted.**

**OH YEAH! I HAVE GOOD NEWS FOR YOU GUYS THAT IS ALSO BAD NEWS FOR ME! **

**Good News: It turns out that Creative Writing wasn't offered at my school this year, so I should have more time to write this and some of my other stories.**

**Bad News: Seeing as how Creative Writing wasn't offered and Photography, my second choice, was full of upperclassmen, I am going to be in Art 1 with the bitchiest teacher in the school. Oh yay.**

**That's my life in a nutshell right now. And for me school starts August 20****th****. So I have two weeks to do my summer reading work and hopefully write another chapter for this before I no longer have free time!**

**Remember, reviews motivate me to write, so if you want another chapter fast, review! :D**


	10. Chapter Seven

**Oh god I'm so sorry! D:**

**I haven't written since before school started! But my free time is extremely limited. The first weekend after school started I was sick and when I'm sick my creativity dies, the second weekend after school started I went to Valdosta Georgia's Wild Adventures (which is awesome) so I had no internet at all because my laptop is too much of a hassle to take with me for a weekend trip, and then after that my best friend's father's heart failed but luckily he was at the hospital when it did so they are keeping him alive for now…but he isn't out of the woods yet. So yeah, things are hectic. On the plus side I got my progress report today at school and I have all A's! I have 100 in Honors Algebra 2 with Trig, Pre-AP Chemistry, and Art 1! And I have 102 in Honors English! My other classes (History, Driver's Ed, Latin II) I have around a 97! Which is awesome because I am currently the top of all my classes! :D**

**This kinda short, which I'm sorry about, but it is more of a filler chapter to get things moving along. Anyway, enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own…sadly. **

**/././././././**

Chapter Seven

I slam my head on my desk in math class and groan.

I don't like Mondays, but this particular Monday sucks ass. I'm tired as fuck and I have a migraine that three Excedrin aren't doing shit to and my shoulder is still sore.

Oh yeah…my shoulder.

That bullet didn't penetrate my skin, but it sure as hell left a nasty bruise.

I still don't understand what had happened. Magic is the only thing that makes sense. Well, magic or I'm secretly Superman. I can't help doubting both options.

The weirdest thing about the whole event? I don't really remember what happened. I remember the bullet hitting me, but everything after that is just a…blur. All I know is that I woke up in my bed in the orphanage around four o'clock yesterday. I must have slept for nearly twenty-four hours, seeing as how I believe the Oscorp incident happened when it was still rather early in the day.

Worst part is that when I woke up I had this killer migraine and an essay still waiting to be written. I wound up bullshitting my way through the required six pages before taking a handful of pills that wouldn't kill me when mixed together.

I wonder what would have happened if I had jumped off that bridge a few month back. Would I have died? Would I have come out fine with nothing more than a bruise and a migraine?

I release another groan and slam my head on the desk as hard as possible. It doesn't hurt. If anything, the blunt force trauma had momentarily relived the migraine. Of course Flash had to pick my moment of temporary bliss to walk by, giving my bruised shoulder a rough shove.

"Fucking hell," I choke out as pain laces my nervous system, causing my knee jerk.

"You okay?"

Peter stands over me looking duly concerned. I fake a smile for a millisecond before replacing it with a frown. "Just dandy."

He smirks in an attempt to ease the glum mood, but I can tell he is still worried about me. He isn't a very good liar because the lies never reach his eyes.

"Stop that."

"What?" Peter asks, frowning at me.

I can't help recoiling. I hadn't meant for my words to sound so harsh, so heated, so sharp. I guess the pain is just getting to my head. Now that I think about it, the tiniest things have been pissing me off today. Someone bouncing their leg, someone thrumming their pencil, someone talking too loudly or too softly. "Sorry," I mumble before turning away from him and facing the board with Mr. Madison standing in front of it.

The bell rings, saving me from Peter's incoming inquiry.

Mr. Madison begins talking about graphing lines in the third dimension and I fade out. Math was boring as hell to listen to. At least history was interesting when Coach talked about stuff like the Salem Witch Trials and the Civil War.

I just want to go back to the orphanage, put some ice on my bruise, take a sleeping pill, and enjoy the feeling of being drugged into a restful night's sleep. I hope when I wake up tomorrow my migraine will be gone.

_Bam!_

I jump out of my thoughts and find myself staring up at a very pissed Mr. Madison. "We are going over Friday's homework, Mr. Blake."

I reach into my backpack and pull out my math notebook…except my math notebook decided to bring something with it. Sitting on my desk in Mr. Madison's plain view is the drawing of Peter. I feel the heat rising in my cheeks. Mr. Madison's face turns a similar shade of red.

Fuck.

"Mr. Blake, detention," was all Mr. Madison said to me before walking away and returning to the lesson. I shove the drawing into my backpack praying to every deity I could think of that no one else saw the drawing.

For the first time in awhile, I checked the answers on my homework. I didn't miss any.

Class went by rather quickly after that. I managed to finish the work he assigned as homework in class, which was quite the feat for me considering how I normally spend my class time napping for daydreaming.

The bell rang and I practically sprinted out of the door in hopes of avoiding everyone. Of course, the person I wanted to avoid most still caught up to me and reached his hand into my unzipped backpack, retrieving the drawing.

"Peter, give it back!" I suddenly felt like a kindergartener jumping in an attempt to swipe the sketch from Peter's hand. I failed.

Peter stared at the drawing for what felt like an eternity but was probably only a few seconds before folding it in half and slipping it into his back pocket.

"You asshole, give it back now," I spit.

Peter went unfazed. "I don't think I will."

I cross my arm in a show of defiance. He copies me. I give him my best glare. Peter makes what appears to be a pouty face. "What the hell are you doing?"

"Copying you."

That strikes a nerve. "I am **not** pouting."

He smirks. "Yeah, you kind of are."

I continue to glare at him.

He smiles, reaches a hand out, and pinches my cheek. "You look so adorable pouting like that."

"I hate you right now." I try to disguise my embarrassment at him calling me adorable with hatred. I don't think it works.

Peter's face softens and he smiles at me, his fingers shifting from pinching my cheek to stroking his thumb across it.

I forget about everything, the pain in my shoulder, my migraine, my embarrassment, and focus on nothing but the feeling of his thumb sliding over my cheek. The action is so familiar, but I can't place it. But for some reason, the weight of the world lifts off my shoulders and the only thing I can do is shiver and lean into the touch.

No amount of drugs in the world could compare to this feeling.

And then Peter pulls his hand away and I am ripped away from my fantasy world so quickly my head begins to throb with each beat of my heart. If I didn't know any better, I'd say my medicine had worn off.

The bell rings and I realize that the hallway around us is barren. I had lost track of time and now I'm going to be tardy to my next class.

I look up and Peter is already jogging off down the school corridor in the direction of his class.

He didn't even say "see you later" or anything.

A hand lands on my shoulder and I find myself looking at Mr. Madison. "Mr. Blake, if you don't go to class I will give you another detention."

Peter and I had been standing by Mr. Madison's classroom the entire time.

I nod and duck my head before fast walking toward English.

**/././././././**

**I like this chapter…but it just doesn't seem like my best. And the whole "bullshitting my way through the essay" thing? That is what I do. And I made the top score on the impromptu English essay we wrote two weeks back! I made a 5 out of a possible 6 (on the fancy college essay scale). Everyone else made 3s. I am awesome! **

**But yeah, for the top student at the school, I really don't take things like essays seriously. I just write what I know the teacher wants me to write. Easy peasy.**

…**So, how have you guys been? I have written anything in a while (except my FireRED/WaterBLUE Nuzlocke thing that I updated/rewrote over the weekend). Hope things are all good out there in the world as we know it.**

**Heads up, my birthday is in two months. Fan art would be an awesome present. (hint hint eyebrow wiggle hint). I would draw some myself, but I'm not good at drawing people. I can draw an awesome squid though (that was all I did in English class the other day). **

**So anyway, reviews make me smile and fangirl squeal. **

**And I just noticed something…in the Behind The Mask Universe, it has only been four/five days…60 pages of word document equate to five-ish days in story. Damn.**


	11. I'm So Sorry You Guys! D:

_AH! OH MY GOD I'M SO SORRY!_

_It has been a long time since I updated! I'm sorry! D:_

_Please forgive me! I am just overworked (severely) and things are just getting worse. I thought I was having a hard time with just plain old honors classes…damn was I wrong._

_It's my fault though. I just HAD to take the qualifying test for Junior Varsity/Varsity Scholars Bowl…and I made Varsity. I am the youngest person on Varsity. Not even kidding._

_And I have Algebra II w/ Trig Math Team practices too. Not to mention I am now working as a clerk for my grandmother and great aunt every Saturday and some week days. They work at a Nursing Home and apparently a big inspection is coming up and they need to have stuff typed and filed and shit. I'm getting paid in community service hours. My school requires us to have 10+. I'm aiming for the +. The + gets me an extra certificate on awards day._

_But yeah, I am exhausted. Guess what I did on Halloween! I went to sleep at seven o'clock! I couldn't keep my eyes open. I am so tired! Not to mention I had had Scholars Bowl on Halloween. _

_I don't even have enough energy to play Pokémon Black 2 and Pokémon White 2. I beat Black 2 last month and made the stupid decision of trading my Pokémon to White 2 and trying to start a new game on Black 2… I haven't left the first town on my new Black 2 file and I quit White 2 after the fourth gym._

_I'M SO TIRED!_

_I'M ALSO EXTREMELY SORRY FOR BEING EXHAUSTED!_

_AND I HAVE WRITER'S BLOCK!_

…_The most I have done in the past two weeks is play Harvest Moon: Animal Parade (I'm trying to marry the Wizard like I did the first time I beat it…of course by beat it I mean make it all the way to getting ingredients for the new tree sapling, collecting all of them except the damn King Salmon, and then quitting because the season changed to winter and the stupid fish can only be caught in the Summer/Fall). I don't know why, but I am also training some dogs on Nintendogs….I got a female German Shepherd named Rosa, a male Boxer named Pea, and a female Dalmatian named Phoebe. Exhaustion makes me do weird things…like each yogurt and take more work than I already had to deal with…I'm just glad I pulled my Latin II project (that was due today) out of my ass. I made a 100% on it too! :D_

_I'm currently trying to type up Chapter Eight of Behind the Mask…but…uh…it's a slow go. I know what I want to happen, but I'm not sure how to get there…._

_I promise I'll have it typed…eventually. Hopefully I'll have it out soon…maybe by Sunday. Hopefully before next weekend…._

_I'm going to go die now from exhaustion and remorse from not typing something substantial up before now. No…I won't die. I might just cry a little…and take a bubble bath…and watch Grimm._

_I'll try to post Chapter Eight by Sunday (I'm working most of Saturday). I promise I'll try._


	12. Intermission: Peter's Uncertainty

**I know this is a week late, but I'm still in a slump. My attention has been zip lately. I'm honestly surprised I busted out what I did. I liked the idea of this intermission (namely because I makes it easier to get where I want in the next one), but it didn't come out as great as I wished on paper…err…word document. This is also an answer to all you guys who were wondering why Peter turned tail in the last installment of this lovely story o' mine.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own. But, fun fact, Disney now owns Star Wars. Another fun fact: the title of this Intermission was almost "Peter's Penis."**

**/././././././**

Intermission: Peter's Uncertainty

"Gwen, I think I like Beck."

Gwen turned her attention from the clipboard in her arms to me and blinked. "And?"

This could not be happening. "_And_? That is all you have to say? _**And**_?"

She frowned at me before scribbling something on her clipboard. "I don't get what the big deal is. I thought you already came to terms with liking Beck."

That was true. I did come to terms with liking Beck _emotionally_. But that wasn't the probably. No, _physically_ liking Beck was what brought me here, to Oscorp Industries, to pester Gwen for an answer.

"Is there something you're not telling me?"

I sigh and grab a sticky note from Gwen's desk. She gives me a funny look while I scribble something down on said sticky note before slapping it to her clipboard.

"You almost _kissed_ him?"

"Thanks for yelling it for everyone to hear, Gwen. That was the reason why I wrote it down. Just so you could shout it."

"Peter, tell me everything that happened."

"Promise not to tell?"

"I promise."

I guess there's no going back now. "We were in the hallway and Beck was mad at me because I took the drawing he had made and didn't give it back, and then I called him adorable because…well, he is, and then…I don't know. I just put my hand on the side of his face and the next thing I knew I was leaning in the kiss him and…I got scared. I ran off."

Gwen looks murderous. "I can't believe you! You just ran off?"

"I told you I got scared. What was I supposed to do?"

"Not run away."

I groan and slap my hand to my face. Now I not only feel confused, but I also feel like a complete and total asshole. Thanks Gwen.

"Is that it? Was wanting to kiss him the only thing that has you freaked out?" Gwen asks. I nod slowly. She doesn't fall for it. "Liar."

"I'd rather not tell you the rest of this matter."

Truthfully, I did want to tell her, but embarrassment kept me from it. So maybe I had a wet dream about Beck. Maybe seeing the picture that he drew of me made me want to make the dream a reality. Maybe I ran off because I was afraid he'd notice that I was a little…turned on.

"Can I guess what else is wrong?"

"No," I reply immediately.

"Why not?"

"Because you'd probably guess correctly."

I watch in silence as Gwen retrieves a sticky note from her desk, scribbles something on it, smirks, and sticks it to my face.

_**You got a boner, didn't you? –Love Gwen**_

__I open my mouth to tell her to shut up, but she cuts me off with the last thing I wanted to hear. "Hey, Beck!"

Being a manly superhero and all, I do the manliest thing I can think of: I hide behind Gwen's desk praying to God that Beck doesn't see me.

"Are you visiting Bridgette?"

I watch Beck walk over to Gwen and sigh. "Hey, and yeah I am." He seemed a little off.

"What's wrong?"

"I had detention. Two hours of hell with Mr. Madison." Beck closes his eyes and slumps his shoulders. Detention must have left him exhausted.

"That must have sucked."

"It sucked almost as bad watching my friend dive behind a desk in a futile attempt to hide from me." I freeze. "Peter, you do realize that if you can see me, I can also see you, right?"

I stand up and try my best to seem apologetic. It doesn't seem to work because Beck punches my arm. I would have assumed it to be a playful punch by the smile on his face but there was one problem. It felt like a freaking martial artist punched me in the arm.

"Did I hit you too hard?"

I swallow my pain and act nonchalant. "No…not at all."

Beck raises and eyebrow at me before turning to Gwen. "What's new, Gwen?"

Gwen begins telling Beck about some dream she had we were all there. I nod occasionally in hopes that she won't think I'm ignoring her completely. Which I am.

My attention is fully on Beck instead. He seemed to be paying attention to the yarn Gwen was enthusiastically weaving. His expression gave away nothing, but I could see a smile in his eyes. I couldn't help wanting him to look at me.

"…and then you two said 'I do' and I threw rice at you and everyone lived happily ever after."

I bet Beck would look nice with rice in his hair.

Wait.

What did Gwen just say?

"What?"

"You guys got married in my dream." Gwen winked at me.

Beck laughs. His laugh is so full of life and happy. So innocent. "Peter, its no big deal. It was just a dream."

"Yeah," I mumble. _Just a dream._

Beck blinks, seeming to realize something, before glancing at the clock on the far wall. "Sorry for leaving so fast, but I have to go talk to Bridgette about something really important. See you later."

And on that note, he was gone, his silhouette quickly vanishing up the near escalator.

"Are you still afraid of liking him?"

I watch Gwen for a long moment before nodding. "I guess so. It just doesn't seem…right."

"Answer this then: If you had the chance to spend the rest of your life with Beck, to make him smile, would you?"

"Of course."

"Then what's the problem?"

What's the problem? Is there a problem? There has to be a problem. It there wasn't one everything would be perfect, wouldn't it? So what's the issue?

And at that moment, something strikes me. Beck hadn't activated my Spidey sense.

**/././././././**

**What'd ya think? Subpar, right? I'm planning on posting the next chapter on my birthday (Nov 26) just because. Actually, spoiler alert, SHITS GONNA GO DOWN! Or at least I think it is. If the plot notes I made back in the beginning when I decided how I wanted this shtick to go are how I think, then the moment you have all been waiting for is going to happen! (**_**Sex?) **_**No…I guess the second moment you have all been waiting for is going to happen! **_**(Oh…um…Spiderman is going to be unmasked?)**_** That's right!**

**If I'm wrong and that isn't the next chapter and is actually the chapter after next, then I guess I'll post the less amazing chapter soon so that the epicness can still take place on my b-day.**

**No I am going to play Harvest Moon: A New Beginning and/or Wizard101! **_**(You are shameless when it comes to product placement, aren't you?)**_

**Hopefully you guys will get another update on the day I specified. Hopefully! :D**


	13. Chapter Eight

**WARNING: SHIT IS ABOUT TO GO DOWN!**

**Yeah, I know I said I would wait until my birthday to post this, but I couldn't wait. I typed it up today and I like it. I like it a lot…of course I'm not sure where to go from here…but I like it. I even proofread this chapter! (I didn't proofread the last one…that's why it is full of errors.)**

**ENJOY! I KNOW I LOVE WRITING THIS!**

**Disclaimer: I wish I owned, but I don't.**

**/././././././**

Chapter Eight

Damn Bridgette. She locked me out of her office. Why won't she talk to me?!

Ever since that guy kicked me out of her office the other day she has been successfully avoiding me. I've tried everything I can think of to get her to talk to me…everything from faking a suicide call (that she let go straight to voice mail) to texting her claiming that I had some footage of crazy, hot, _gay_ sex (which she never replied to).

Something is definitely wrong if she didn't reply to that.

I groan and turn down the alley just past Quickie Mart on my way back to the orphanage. It was already dark out by now, the sun having set over an hour ago and the moon at mid-sky. Any sane human would be inside right now due to the high increase in criminal activity as of late. I'm not sane though. Hell, I'm not even sure if I'm human anymore. Too much weird shit is happening lately.

I stop walking and choose to instead glare at the brick wall to my left. One of its bricks was too large for the space it occupied and jutted out a few centimeters. The brick was taunting me.

My emotions overthrew the rational part of my brain for the split second it took for me to send my right fist at the brick.

I'm not sure what I expected to happen. The impact hurt a tad, most likely bruising my knuckles, but past that, my hand was unscathed. The brick was far from intact though.

It looked as if someone took at miniature wrecking ball to the offending wall. A crater spanning about a foot and a good six inches deep was now present. The brick that had filled it was mere shards and flakes of dust.

Damn wall.

"Whoa."

I freeze instinctually, as if my lack of movement will prevent the stranger from registering my presence.

"You did that."

It wasn't a question. His words were spoken as a statement, the same way people say that the sky is blue and the government is nothing but a giant conspiracy theory.

"What's your name?"

My gut immediately warned me against telling the man my name. As if knowing my name would change something. Either way, I turned to him and chose to lie. "My name's Blake." It wasn't a total lie. He didn't say first name after all.

The man smiled at me. His teeth were yellowed and crooked. "Oh really?"

My muscles tighten, preparing to run without my command. I keep my feet planted firm.

It was then that I _smelled_ him. His smell was that of rotten cheese and sour milk. Of dirty laundry and fish tank scum. He wasn't a good man.

"Leave me be," I growl.

My fortitude must have amused him because he laughed. "Whatever you say, kid."

I'm not sure what happened next. One second I was standing, the next I was on my stomach, my face pressed in the concrete. The man had one of his knees digging into the small of my back, one of his hands forcing my head down.

"There's no point in struggling. My pop told me all about you when you were still a little lab bitch. He told me about your powers. He told me about your weaknesses."

Struggling against him crosses my mind, but I don't attempt it. He had the upper hand right now and my energy felt kind of tapped for the moment. "What the hell are you saying?" My words are muffled by the ground.

He must have heard them. "You don't remember, do you 2325?"

I cringe. Those numbers terrified me. I hated them. But…I can't remember why.

"All the scientists, including my pop, wondered what happened to you. They tried to kill you, I hear. You wouldn't die though. One of them promised to get rid of you. He didn't do a good job."

I try to shake my head, to deny everything the man was saying, but his weight prevents me.

"Don't think I've got the right guy, do you?" He puts more weight on my skull and I whimper. "How about we have a little test?"

Test. I panic. I struggle, bucking my hips, thrashing my legs, wiggling my shoulders, anything to get away. Anything to escape a test.

"My pop told me about your little test fear. It was one of the things that made you a failure. You can take a bullet to the face but a needle sends you into an emotional, and physical, breakdown. And stop struggling. I saw you blow your energy buildup on the wall." He pauses for a moment. Suddenly something cool presses to the back of my neck. "And I don't have any needles. I just have a taser."

I try to scream. A taser zap directed to the spinal cord can't be healthy.

He presses my face harder into the concrete in an attempt to shut me up. "Don't worry. If I'm right, and I think I am, you'll live. Then I'll take you to Osborne for a pretty penny. And if I happen to be wrong…you'll die."

Everything grows unsettlingly silent for the few seconds before he activates the taser. I expected searing pain and death. Honestly, I was a little disappointed by the result.

It hurt for all of two seconds and most likely caused a minor burn mark before the sensation did a one eight from "ouch" to "oh yeah." Every pleasure receptor in my body was ablaze from the shock. The worst part…I wanted more.

Without much trouble at all, I flipped the man off of me, stealing his taser in his moment of confusion. I immediately press the little device to my heart in hopes that the simple relocation will intensify my feelings.

And then the taser died. I had totally and completely sapped the batteries.

And the man lay on the ground a couple feet away staring at me in wide-eyed fear.

"I'm sorry," I mumble before swiftly kicking him in the head with enough force to cause an injury somewhere between a concussion and severe brain damage. Hopefully he won't remember this night.

It had to be done.

I frown down at my newly acquired taser. _If only the Quickie Mart was still open…then I could buy a shit ton of batteries._

I drop the taser without a second thought and run away. Now I know how a drug addict must feel every time they have an opportunity for another hit. I hated that feeling.

After a few minutes of running I realize that I went in the opposite direction of the orphanage and was now extremely lost. The tussle with that guy must have turned me around.

That guy was lying, right? He had to have been. I would remember being a lab experiment…wouldn't I?

_2325_.

Never before has a random set of numbers terrified me so badly.

And how did he know about my fear of needles? Lucky guess?

I close my eyes and let out a long breath. If he was telling the truth, then that means Bridgette isn't really my sister.

Not to mention that being a test-tube baby would explain all the weird shit I can do.

But…why had I been created?

"Beck, is that you?"

I flinch and glance up to find Spiderman hanging upside down in front of me. Upon further inspection, I see that he is hanging from a lamppost by a thin piece of web. "Hey."

And then my libido reminds me how fueled it is. And I pray that Spiderman's gaze doesn't drift too far south.

"What's hanging?"

He laughs. "You're lost aren't you?"

"Maybe."

"Need some help getting home?"

"It depends."

"On what?"

I watch the superhero for a long moment before sighing. My life is definitely not normal anymore. Then again, was it ever? "Tell me your secret."

"What?"

Silence passes between the two of us for what feels like an eternity. It is a comfortable silence though. I lift a hand up to Spiderman's upside down face and grip the base of his mask. Maybe it was my sex drive that made rash decisions easy…

Spiderman grabs my hand, temporarily halting my venture. "Beck, what are you doing?"

…Or maybe this wasn't such a rash decision after all.

"Beck, you can't remove my mask."

Maybe this was a question that needed to be asked now.

"Beck, I'm serious. You can't know."

Maybe I already knew the answer.

"Beck—"

"Peter, stop talking."

He stops talking and removes his hand from mine, allowing me to tug the mask down, revealing the face I knew was behind it.

I lean forward and place my lips lightly to his upside down ones. The kiss was gentle, chaste, ended far too quickly.

Peter watches me pull back. He looked a little disappointed that I ended the kiss. Honestly, I'm a little disappointed too. That was my first kiss.

"How did you know?"

"I just did," I mumble, smiling. "I guess I always kind of knew. I wasn't sure until now."

Peter releases the web holding him and lands easily on his feet. I smile up at him. He smiles back. In the blink of an eye I feel my back press to the wall behind me and Peter reconnects our mouths. The kiss catches me off guard. I can feel his tongue slip inside my mouth in my moment of weakness. I let out an involuntary moan.

And then the kiss ends.

Peter's breathing is hard as he leans his forehead against mine. My breathing is labored too.

"What now?" he asks in barely a whisper.

"I don't know," I mumble, watching his eyes carefully, afraid to find discontent of some form or another.

Peter presses a soft kiss between my eyebrows and laughs. "I like this."

"I like this too."

"How about we start with this then?"

I laugh just to laugh. "I'd like that."

Maybe my bizarre life isn't so bad after all. Sure I get jumped by criminals all the time. Sure I might be a freak-of-nature lab experiment. Sure everything might be crumbling around me.

But at least one thing is right.

"Beck?"

"Yeah?"

"Is that a pickle in your pocket or are you happy to see me?"

"Says the person in skintight clothing that doesn't hide anything."

"Touché."

**/././././././**

**REVIEW MY LOVELIES! YOUR REVIEWS MAKE ME SMILE WHEN I'M DOWN.**

**So, what do you think? Did your brains explode from the pure awesomeness of the shit that went down?**

**I'm sure you guys are full of many many many questions. **

**SPOILER-ISH: Here is answer that should make things a tad bit easier to comprehend: You know the different types of energy (electrical, mechanical, etc.)? Imagine if a person was capable of absorb these energy forms, storing them, and releasing them when need. This person could absorb several pounds of force and later release the force…like if they absorbed the force of a bullet and later applied it to a brick wall. This person would make a perfect biological weapon, theoretically that is.**

**Remember to review you guys. And feel free to mention a particular villain that you may want to see coming up (I need to pick a villain). I'm probably bringing Harry Osborne into this story in a chapter or two…**

**So review! And if you're bored go type "Beck" into . The results are highly amusing if I do say so myself.**

**I LOVE ALL YOU GUYS! :D**


	14. This story will resume next month!

Hey you guys, I'm sorry I haven't updated in a long time. I promise this story will not be dropped or forgotten about. I will try to resume writing when summer vacation rolls around in a week's time. Forgive me for my lack of updates, but life is draining.

This note will be deleted when the next chapter in this beloved story is ready to be posted. Again, I'm sorry for lack of updates and I'm sorry if you got excited when you saw this story labeled as updated. Sorry.


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